Quick question

[Tug]

My male motoro has been rubbing his head on a piece of driftwood in my tank for the last few weeks. I think he's doing it to get at pieces of food that get wedged under the wood. Anyway, he has now rubbed all the flesh off the top of his head. It looks good for a few days and then he's right back to sticking his head under there and opening it back up again.

It's a new tank set up for them (300 gal.) and I'm not sure he's learned that he doesn't have to go to such extremes to get a bite to eat.

So do I medicate the whole tank with salt or just remove the wood? I have a few plecos in the tank that really love the wood and it doesn't bother the other ray but I'm getting tired of watching him hurt himself.

So what would you guys do? Dose the tank to help with healing or just get rid of the wood?

Thanks for any help. Here's a picture of him....scalped of course. He's the small one.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

You cant move the wood around so that the ray doesnt bump into it???

I would get rid of the wood and plecos, add salt, bump up temp. along with lots of water changes and watch the wound.

 

[Tug]

It's not the location of the wood it's the shape. It has a narrow bottom and gets wide at the top, just enough room for a ray to wedge his head in there and blow at some sand. I think I'm going to be pulling the wood but just wanted a few opinions.

 

[Tug]

Here's another picture from another post of mine. It shows the shape of the driftwood and why he's rubbing his head on it. See the catfish is wedged in there right now

 

[Nic]

You cant move the wood around so that the ray doesnt bump into it???

I would get rid of the wood and plecos, add salt, bump up temp. along with lots of water changes and watch the wound.

^^^^

what he said...

 

[wetsocks]

yeah, remove the plec. add salt and rise temp.

best of luck! and keep us posted

 

[danzx23]

why dont you try moven the wood? turn it twist it flip it?